Issue - meetings

To receive presentations from Kate Rose Principal Children's Safeguarding Manager on:

·         The implications off new statutory guidance for safeguarding children and young people

·         The work of the safeguarding unit.

Kate Rose and Nigel Moorehouse attended the meeting and gave a presentation on the implications of new statutory guidance for safeguarding children and young people and on the work of the safeguarding unit at Cheshire East.

The committee was informed that  new guidance entitled ‘Working together to safeguard children’ set out how organisations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and how practitioners should conduct the assessment of children.

 The latest guidance had updated guidance first issued in 1999 which had been updated over the intervening years to reflect changes in the philosophical approach to safeguarding in response, amongst other things, to such issues as the baby P case in Haringey.

The main thrust of the guidance was to place more trust in the professionals involved in safeguarding to keep children safe and to avoid over legislating in this area. The guidance placed greater emphasis on the independency of other agencies as well as the Council in respect of child protection issues.

In response to the guidance, Cheshire East had:

·         Transformed social work practice and standards

·         Introduced arrangements for the external review of the Council’s safeguarding governance arrangements involving a new panel of experts to advise the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB)

·         Appointed an external chair

·         Introduced quarterly reports from the external Chair to the Chief executive, Strategic director and Portfolio holder

·         Improved intelligence across agencies to  provide assurance regarding effectiveness

·         Piloted new methodology for case reviews

·         Introduced a pan Cheshire child death review panel independent

The impact of these changes was expected to:

·         Move away from target driven practice to child centred assessment based upon outcomes

·         Under-pin assessment as continuous process

·         Emphasis on provision of early help to have greatest impact

·         Reaffirm the need for all agencies to provide early help

·         S11 of the Children Act 2004 relating to response to allegations and safe practice will work across all organisations

·         A need for a strong challenging role of the Independent Chair of LSCB

·         Still with the recognition that how well the various agencies carry out their roles there will still be cases where children will be harmed or die due to abuse or neglect.

In response to a question regarding the mechanisms that were in place to allow the various agencies to work together effectively to ensure early intervention, many of whom worked in different environments, Nigel Moorhouse explained that effective joint working relied upon a number of measures such as the correct application of the standards set in the Council’s policies and procedures and those of partner organisations and through performance management. He explained that the Council would soon be launching a new consultation service which would allow individuals to report matters relating to safeguarding of children to the Council whilst retaining their right to remain anonymous.

A further question was asked about the arrangements in place to prevent child grooming.

Kate rose informed the Committee that the Council had a dedicated team dealing with child sexual exploitation, and that extensive work  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30